**Chapter 80: The Sun Keeper**
From the center of the Sun Ship, a clear, bell-like voice drifted down. Qin Mu's jade pendant trembled against his chest, rising slightly as though trying to fly toward the vessel. His heart lurched, and he quickly turned toward the voice.
He saw her — a colossus of staggering proportions, many times taller than the other giants aboard the ship. She resembled a god descended to the mortal realm.
Her legs had sunk deep into the ship's hull, buried nearly to her waist. Even so, she still stood over a hundred zhang tall.
She had four arms. Each pair — one set before her, one behind — gripped a massive pillar. Iron chains were wound around these pillars, and those chains were the very ones that held the black sun suspended in midair.
Blazing flames engulfed her body, making her appear as a living fire. The searing heat radiating from her made Qin Mu feel as though his skin was being scorched just from looking at her.
Strangely, though her body was that of a titanic woman, her face belonged to someone far younger. She did not look like a grown woman at all — she looked like a girl younger than Qin Mu himself.
But how could such a tiny girl inhabit a body over a hundred zhang tall?
She appeared utterly exhausted, gasping for breath between heaving chest rises.
"You recognize this jade pendant?" Qin Mu called out.
Something stirred within him, and he quickly unfastened the pendant from his neck. The four giant hands released their grip on the pillars, and the woman's body began to shrink. Before long, the hundred-zhang colossus had dwindled into a girl who stood half a head shorter than Qin Mu.
"Senior?" she said brightly, laughing with genuine delight. After catching her breath, she added, "I'm not a senior..."
She struggled to pull her legs free from the ship's hull. The Sun Ship was truly peculiar — her legs had fused with its structure, the ship's flames penetrating her flesh like blood vessels. It took considerable effort to wrench them loose.
Once her legs were free, the spots where she had stood smoothed over. Two holes remained where her legs had merged with the hull, but they were slowly healing shut.
The girl took a tentative step and nearly collapsed, her legs trembling beneath her. She quickly steadied herself with all four hands on the ground, then looked up sheepishly. "Could you come aboard?"
Qin Mu glanced at the other giants on the ship. An elderly giant nodded and said in a low voice, "Let him come up."
A simply dressed giant approached the ship's edge and extended an arm. The limb bridged the gap between the dragon pillar and the Sun Ship like a living ramp. Qin Mu hesitated, then stepped onto the giant's palm and crossed the massive arm to reach the deck.
Once aboard, he was taken aback. It was far cooler here than he had expected. He had imagined it would be unbearably hot, like standing inside a furnace, but instead the air was surprisingly refreshing.
"That little brat Mu'er!"
Back in Xianglong City, the Village Chief and the others had noticed the Sun Ship's strange behavior. They turned to look just in time to see Qin Mu crossing the giant's arm to board the vessel. The Herbalist let out an exasperated laugh and cursed, "The boy has lost his mind — daring to board a god's ship!"
The Butcher drew both pig-slaughter knives, his killing intent erupting. "They dare snatch our child? Let's cut our way over!"
The Village Chief shot him a glare and said calmly, "They mean no harm. Let Mu'er go. The one on that ship... doesn't seem to be a god."
Qin Mu approached the girl. The Sun Ship slowly returned to level. The girl, unused to walking after so long, struggled to stand and bow, so she remained seated and inclined her head toward him instead.
Qin Mu returned the courtesy and handed her the jade pendant. The girl examined it carefully, a thoughtful expression crossing her face. She spoke to the elderly giant beside her in a strange, archaic language.
The old giant's expression turned to one of astonishment. He studied Qin Mu intently and replied in the same cryptic tongue.
"Divine language!"
Qin Mu was startled. The old man and the young girl were speaking the language of the gods. He had heard divine speech before, but he could not understand its meaning — so he had no way of knowing what they were saying.
After a brief exchange, the girl returned the jade pendant to Qin Mu. "Grandfather says your pendant is neither divine, demonic, nor Buddhist. He has seen things like it before. It should have come from a place within the Great Ruins called the Land of No Worries."
"The Land of No Worries?"
Qin Mu's spirit surged. "Where is it?"
The girl asked the old giant again. The elder hesitated, then spoke several phrases in the archaic tongue. The girl shook her head. "The Land of No Worries is extremely mysterious. It only appears when the darkness covers the Grand Ruins. Even Grandfather doesn't know where it is."
Qin Mu felt a pang of disappointment, but he committed the name firmly to memory. The Land of No Worries might be his birthplace — the place where his parents lived. He would find it, no matter what.
"Wasn't I impressive just now?" the girl said with a grin.
Qin Mu blinked, his expression odd. "That was you? You were the one piloting the Sun Ship, driving away Yankang's army?"
The girl beamed with pride. "Surprised?"
Qin Mu was indeed surprised. Not only had the State Preceptor of Yankang been startled by this young girl, but even the Village Chief and the Mute had been fooled. They had assumed that an ancient, incomprehensibly powerful god still lived aboard the Sun Ship — and that the State Preceptor had recognized he was outmatched and withdrawn.
Not one of them could have imagined that a little girl had been at the helm. Of course, the Sun Ship was so overwhelming, so powerful, that such a misjudgment was entirely understandable.
"My name is Yan Jingjing. What's yours?" the girl asked curiously.
"Qin Mu."
He paused, then added, "I don't actually know if my surname is Qin or if Qin is just part of my name. The jade pendant has the character for 'Qin' on it, so the Village Chief took that as my surname. 'Mu' means a cowherd boy. What does 'Yan Jingjing' mean?"
"It means 'many suns, many flames,'" she replied.
Yan Jingjing tried to stand, but she had clearly not used her legs for a very long time. Her steps were unsteady, and Qin Mu saw that her legs had atrophied terribly — thin as sticks, skin stretched over bone with hardly any muscle left at all.
Her gaunt frame was enough to make anyone's heart ache.
"When I was born, I blazed like a sun. The flames on my body killed my mother. That's why Grandfather named me Yan Jingjing — 'Blazing Crystal.'"
Her expression grew somber. "When I grew a little older, Grandfather told me I carry the blood of the Sun Keeper. The Sun Keeper's power is immense — it can earn the Sun Ship's acceptance and allow me to pilot this great vessel across the Great Ruins. I'm the only one in the clan who can do it. So I became the Sun Keeper of this generation."
Her mood brightened again. "You're a boy who herds cows, and I'm a girl who herds the sun! When I'm merged with the Sun Ship, my power is tremendous — like a real god. That's how I scared those bad people away. Did I scare you just now?"
Qin Mu smiled. "You did."
Yan Jingjing lowered her head. "I'm sorry. I was so exhausted I couldn't go on, so I stopped here to rest. I didn't mean to frighten you..."
Qin Mu shook his head. "It's fine. Why are your legs so thin?"
"Grandfather says that when the Sun Herder clan's sun went dark, the Sun Ship began draining my life force. It makes me thinner and thinner."
She continued quietly, "When I've got no strength left, I'll merge with the ship forever — just like the previous Sun Keepers. That's how my father died... But if the sun could be lit again, the Sun Ship would draw power from the sun instead of from me. It would even give back to the Sun Keeper. I'd become strong!"
Qin Mu's heart trembled. He looked up at the black sun hanging in the sky. "The sun needs to be reignited? Who could possibly do that? Perhaps only a true god... Why must you guard this place? Why must you be the Sun Keeper?"
"Because it's our duty as Sun Herders. Being the Sun Keeper is a divine calling," she said simply. "A long, long time ago — I don't know exactly when, just very long ago — our people, the Sun Herders, were appointed as Sun Keepers. We were told to guard the Sun Ship and protect the Great Ruins. That duty has been passed down ever since. Who appointed us, I don't know. Grandfather might know."
Yan Jingjing was remarkably cheerful. She seemed to have few playmates, and once she sat beside Qin Mu she chattered away endlessly, telling him about the interesting things she had seen during her journeys.
Qin Mu looked around. The Sun Herder clan were all giants. There were other youths of her age, but they all treated Yan Jingjing with a mixture of awe and deference, not daring to approach her.
Moreover, these people were far taller and stronger than Yan Jingjing. She looked more like a human — as though she belonged to a different race entirely.
Qin Mu guessed that perhaps Yan Jingjing carried human blood in her veins. It was also possible that the Sun Ship's draining of her life force had prevented her from growing as large as the others.
Yet oddly, when Yan Jingjing merged with the Sun Ship, she became incomparably majestic — like a goddess of terrible power. This suggested his guess might not be entirely correct.
What he did not know was that the Sun Herders were not naturally so tall. They lived aboard the Sun Ship, where a trace of divine power permeated the air. As they breathed and ate, they unconsciously absorbed this divine energy, which caused their bodies to grow extraordinarily large.
Yan Jingjing, however, was different. Because the Sun Ship drained her faster than she could absorb, she had not grown like the rest of her clan.
Only when she merged with the Sun Ship — and their powers fused — did she become as towering as a true god.
"Some day," Qin Mu said earnestly, "when I'm able, I'll help you reignite the sun and set you free."
"Really?"
Yan Jingjing's eyes sparkled with hope. "I'm looking forward to that day! When it comes, I'll be able to walk — just like everyone else!"
Qin Mu nodded firmly. "I'll find a way. I'll light this sun."
At that moment, the elderly giant chief approached. "Sun Keeper, the army of Yankang has fully retreated."
Yan Jingjing struggled to her feet and waved at Qin Mu with a bright smile. "I have to go too. I'll leave through the Star Sea and emerge from the Sun Well. If you ever want to find me, that's where to go!"
Qin Mu nodded. The girl limped back to the pillars. The moment her hand touched one, her body began to swell rapidly. Her legs sank into the Sun Ship once more, merging with its structure.
Her palms grasped the other three pillars, and blazing flames erupted from her body, making it impossible to approach.
The elderly giant chief escorted Qin Mu to the ship's edge. The old Sun Herder's white hair and haggard face spoke of deep sorrow. He murmured, "The Sun Keeper does not have many years left..."
Qin Mu's heart stirred. He looked up at the old man, then toward the fiery colossus in the distance — Yan Jingjing was still smiling at him.
"If you are truly a visitor from the Land of No Worries, perhaps you will find a way to reignite the sun. After all..."
The giant chief hesitated and did not finish his sentence. He helped Qin Mu descend from the Sun Ship. Then this unfathomable creation of the gods slowly rose to its feet and began walking toward the Star Sea.
The setting sun cast its slanting rays upon the ancient vessel as it receded into the distance. The black sun suspended in the sky grew smaller and smaller until it became nothing more than a tiny, barely visible speck.